1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an image processing apparatus, an information processing apparatus, a control method therefor, and a computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Web browser for browsing content on WWW (World Wide Web) displays information for identifying the storage position of a resource such as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for content or the path name of a file together with content on a display area such as an address bar. In recent years, with the higher-functionality of an image processing apparatus, such Web browsers have been installed on the apparatus, thereby enabling the user to connect to a network using the image processing apparatus. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-242994 has proposed a Web server that provides an operation screen for inputting an instruction for using each function of an image processing apparatus.
As an application of this technique, a Web server provides user authentication processing and an authentication screen in an image processing apparatus, and the authentication screen is rendered on the Web browser of the image processing apparatus, thereby adapting an authentication operation to the Web. This eliminates the need to hold resources associated with authentication in the image processing apparatus, and also enables ready management of authentication on the Web server.
The conventional technique, however, has the following problem. Consider a case in which there are not one but multiple authentication methods of an image processing apparatus such as card authentication, key input authentication, and fingerprint authentication. In this case, a Web application must create screen information for each authentication method. Even when only one authentication apparatus is connected to the image processing apparatus, the Web application cannot recognize an authentication apparatus connected to the image processing apparatus, and therefore must provide a screen adapted to all authentication apparatuses. Since, with this operation, a screen containing authentication information for authentication apparatuses which are not connected is displayed, it may take a long time to execute an authentication operation for the image processing apparatus.
To deal with this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-242994 has proposed that the image processing apparatus notifies the Web server of a URL (information of a connection to a service provided by the image processing apparatus) as an item of information about the service. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-242994, however, the Web server is undesirably notified of the information of the image processing apparatus all the time. This may not only cause an increase in data transmission but also leak highly confidential information. Also, the user may reopen the login screen of the Web application using the Web browser after login, which means that a login operation may have to be performed multiple times.